“Give the boy a Benjamin.” Shankle lets out a gravelly laugh. “There. I just gave you a ninety-nine dollar raise.”
Austin seethes across the table.
“Did your associate find anything else out?” Chance asks, keeping Shankle moving so Austin doesn’t kill him.
“Something that would get you off the hook for this?” Shankle shakes his head. “I’m sorry, son.”
“I’m not your son,” Chance says. “You did my father’s dirty work all those years. How do we know you’re not behind all of this?”
“You’re well within your rights to request another lawyer.” Shankle scoots his chair back and crosses his legs. “But I’ve told you before, I only took care of his ranching business, and I swear to you everything there is legit. Besides, if I’m aware of a crime, I have to report it.”
“Doesn’t mean you will,” Austin mutters.
“Chance makes a good point, Shankle,” I add. “There’s got to be someone at your firm or another firm who might be a better fit for this particular case, especially since everything points to your dead client.”
“We had this discussion already,” Shankle counters. “I’ve got one of my partners who is experienced in white-collar crime work looking at this. As for me? All I can say is look at my track record. I took care of Jonathan Bridger for several decades. He had his faults for sure, but I never saw any evidence of malfeasance in my dealings with him.”
“So you’re sure he operated his ranch on the up and up?” Austin taps his fingers on the table.
If he didn’t, it could impact our inheritance. I didn’t want dirty money, especially any that might have been involved in killing my woman’s brother.
“To the best of my knowledge. I knew he had outside interests, but he never commingled any of the funds with this ranching business. Now, that doesn’t mean that his estate is exempt from the fines and civil penalties with regard to the EPA violations.”
“Don’t they have to prove it first?” I say.
He nods. “Yes, but in a civil case, the burden of proof is much lower.”
Chance runs a hand over his face. “We’ve got enough going on. We need you to make the EPA case go away. Surely there’s more than enough to pay any fines and damages from my father’s other holdings.”
“We have to sell off assets,” Shankle says. “Nothing is liquid.”
“Then sell the damned assets,” I say, my voice rising. “Do you really think any of us care if we own some hospital or paint supply company or hazardous chemical plant?”
Sadie tenses beside me.
“You okay, baby?”
She nods, and then she sniffles. “I just don’t understand the whole thing about Joey. I mean, who’s this Gene Chubb who answered the phone?”
“My associates haven’t gotten that information yet,” Shankle says. “The phone wasn’t traceable. But they’re working on it.”
Sadie nods. “Okay.”
“We’ll prove that your brother was a good guy,” I tell her.
She turns to me, meets my gaze, and then she looks across the table at Chance. “My brother’s dead, Miles. It’s more important that we prove to the world thatyourbrother is a good guy. We need to get Chance off the hook for Joey’s death.”
My God.
This woman. I can’t believe it, but I’m falling hard. Hell, I already fell hard.
“Anything else?” Austin asks our attorney.
“That’s all I’ve got for now. I suppose we need to let Peterson back in.”
Sadie rises then. “I’ll go get him. I think… I think I’ll go sit at my desk and try to get some work done. I’m off this case, but I do have others.”
I trail my fingers over her forearm. “You could take a few days off. Don’t you have bereavement pay or something?”